{"id":5511,"date":"2023-12-08T22:56:18","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T05:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.balkingpoints.com\/balk\/?p=5511"},"modified":"2025-06-15T17:51:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T23:51:27","slug":"would-be-83-and-john-lennon-may-have-been","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/archives\/5511","title":{"rendered":"Would Be 83, and John Lennon Could Have Been"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ex1\">\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: arial; font-size:20px ;\"><em>If you reached this Balkingpoints article by direct external link, stop by the front page for a <a href=\"http:\/\/Balkingpoints.com\"  target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>rotating satellite view<\/strong><\/a> of the earth at night<\/em><\/span>\r\n\r\n<center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/div.png\"\/><\/center>\r\n\r\n<\/p><p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/platform-api.sharethis.com\/js\/sharethis.js#property=6005a7edc6ae2f001213eb1d&amp;product=inline-share-buttons\" async=\"async\"><\/script><\/p>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<p><\/p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/11.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/center>\r\n&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;  <p><em>The Lennon memorial &#8220;Strawberry Fields&#8221; 12\/8\/2023 in NYC<\/em><br \/>\r\n<code><\/code><br \/>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\r\np{font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; color: black;}<br \/>\r\n<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/p><p class=\"ex1\">It was 43 years ago today&#8230;<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"ex1\">An inartful way to phrase the death of John Lennon. December 8, 1980.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"ex1\">Beside the tragedy is a jarring backstory. John &#8211; now arguably a godfather of modern progressive values &#8211; had become a quite vocal activist against the Vietnam war. He had taken up residence in New York City after the breakup of the Beatles, and sitting President Nixon <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2010\/10\/08\/130401193\/uncovering-the-truth-behind-lennons-fbi-files\"  target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>wanted him dealt with<\/strong><\/a>. Nixon was like that.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"ex1\">Nixon tried to deport John. Lennon got an attorney and went into legal stall tactics. It worked. Within a couple of years Nixon was dealing with his Watergate scandal and being forced to resign in 1974. Additionally, Nixon had agreed in 1973 <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Paris_Peace_Accords\"  target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>to a peace treaty<\/strong><\/a> to end the Vietnam war.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"ex1\">So John got through the cracks, Gerald Ford had no reason to hassle him and John stayed in NYC.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"ex1\">In fact Ford wanted a domestic healing after that war, <a href=\"https:\/\/cafe.com\/article\/on-the-side-of-leniency-the-1970s-battle-over-vietnam-draft-evaders\/\"  target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>granting amnesty to draft evaders<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"ex1\">And this is the problem: Had Nixon succeeded in sending John back to UK, he isn&#8217;t shot on 12\/8\/1980 in New York and may well still be alive (age 83).<\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-size:30px;\">\ud83d\ude2c<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.online\/@Balkingpoints\" >Roy@Balkingpoints<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p><code><\/code><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\r\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Beatles - The Ballad Of John And Yoko\" width=\"634\" height=\"357\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v-1OgNqBkVE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\r\n<\/div><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><code><\/code><br \/>\r\n<\/p><center><span style=\"font-family: arial; font-size:18px ;\">Published 2023 \/ all rights reserved<\/span><\/center><br \/>\r\n<meta name=\"mastodon:card\" content=\"summary\"\/><meta name=\"mastodon:domain\" content=\"Balkingpoints.com\"\/><meta name=\"mastodon:site\" content=\"@Balkingpoints\"\/><br \/>\r\n<meta name=\"mastodon:creator\" content=\"\"\/><meta name=\"mastodon:image:src\" content=\"https:\/\/www.balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/11.jpg\"\/><meta name=\"mastodon:description\" content=\"\"\/><meta name=\"mastodon:title\" content=\"Would Be 83, and John Lennon May Have Been\"\/><meta name=\"mastodon:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.balkingpoints.com\/balk\/archives\/5511\"\/><p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you reached this Balkingpoints article by direct external link, stop by the front page for a rotating satellite view of the earth at night &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; The Lennon memorial &#8220;Strawberry Fields&#8221; 12\/8\/2023 in NYC It was 43 years ago today&#8230; An inartful way to phrase the death of John Lennon. December [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,151],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5511"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5511"}],"version-history":[{"count":90,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6174,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5511\/revisions\/6174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}